intercounty connector began opening in segments in 2011. largely because of the lengthy delay, the only financially viable option for the roadway was the construction as a toll road. and the tolls are pricy and that can cost more than $3 for a full one-way trip. the rush hour soft is higher and for trucks, it's much higher. it was easy for us to find motorists in montgomery county who occasionally used the ecc. >> when we need it, it saves under the circumstance time. >> whoever uses it? >> and i used a couple. that is about it. >> and most days, the traffic is light to moderate. phil andrews, never a fan of the icc, believes the tolls on the highway are way too high and they should be cut drastically in order to draw more traffic on to the six-lane

roadway. >> and that is too much. cut them in half, double the traffic and you raise the same amount of revenue and make it a use willful road for the people -- useful road for the people on it and the roads that the car comes off of. >> reporter: the maryland transportation authority said the traffic is growing at the rate of three percent -- 3% per month and first-year revenues higher. they said the toll roadways purpose is to provide relatively congestion tree travel with reliable travel times. and it will respond directly, presumably priestly to cut the tolls in half. reading between the lines and the statements, it sounds like the answer is no. >> indeed, it does. another big story, the

fiscal cliff debate. and fox 5 learned that president obama and john boehner spoke on the issue today, but the results have not been made public. the white house is asking federal agencies to plan for $100 billion in spending cuts and that is what happened if not resolved. administration believes the deal will be done. john boehner made an offer earlier this week putting $800 billion on new revenue on the table. he got hit hard by the administration and members of his own party. >> we have to cut spending and, i believe, it's super flowous. >> and that is a law, higher rates to go up for the 2072%, including all of you. yes. >> reporter: president obama was speaking to business leaders when he made the comment. he insists he will veto any bill not including tax increases on wealthier americans. the defense department started planning for the roughly $500 billion in personnel cuts.

the pin is not talking to the defense contractors of public plans. the council made it clear that it's not following the mayor's lead on several issues. it was evident last night during a 13-hour meeting. the council voted against several bills. matt has more. >> reporter: the mayor appears to be concerned about the budget when it comes to a number of bills passed by the council yesterday and one thing that could put a hole is the plan by the council to lower speed camera fines. it passed last night and even though the mayor said the cameras are about safety, not mean, they generate a lot -- not money, they generate a lot of revenue and they could be close to $100 million the next four years. the mayor claims in total, the council passed bills to reduce the city's funding by $350 million that is over the next

four years. the chairman of the council said the changes were important and they will be worked into the budget. >> some things done wrong and some things you wish were done differently. i wished they had not passed the legislation, though, and that is subject to appropriations. again, not to be deund -- redundant, it gives the public the impression the bills were passed and moved forward when, in fact, they can't. >> and i think that when the committee chairs are looking at legislation, they ought to be looking hard at whether we can avoid putting off the effectiveness until money is found. in other words, draft legislation in such a way that it's fully funded. on the other hand, if there is a priority that is important, like reducing the speeding, that is important if it's the council to say this is a priority. this is where the policy ought to be. >> also, all voted in favor of a new plan for d.c.'s autonomy.

this plan would put the issue to the voters with the hopes of taking congressional control away. the mayor wants control over local dollars raised in the district and didn't think this was the best way to do it, brian. new details about the -- used in the wake of the terrorist attack on the u.s. consulate in libya. ambassador susan rice used the talking points as the basis when she wrongly blamed the ben gauzy attack on an anti-islam youtube video. the cia said they need to protect sources and methods. the congressional committees are seeking the raw e-mail traffic to assess how and why the talking points were changeed. >> reporter: was there a problem with communication between, say the fbi doing the investigation, cia doing some of the intelligence analysis, the state department who was responsible for some of the security. was this, again, a stove piping problem of a different kind? >> and aside from the talking points, lawmakers want

definitive information on the level of premeditation by the terrorists and how early it was known. the wikileaks trial will resume today and will determine if bradley manning's case will be dismissed. he claims the nine-month free trial confinent -- to punishment. he faces charges, including aiding the enemy and if convicted, he could face love in prison. hillary clinton is at the final foreign nato summit. the secretary said there is an urgent need for egyptian president morsi to talk more with his opposition and relieve the volatile tension in the country and hammerd home nato's support for turkey as the alliance deployed missiles to the countries and pushed the leaders to make promises on their promises to afghanistan. >> we expect the need of an efficient, transparent, accountable mechanism to channel the international community's contributions to the afghan forces. >> european countries pledged

$4 billion per year for afghanistan after american troops leave in 2013. e -- 2014. where john mcafee turned up after at biz -- the bizarre run in belize. >> and the federal courts overturned a plan for the graphic cigarette warning labels. >> a cooler day today. i'll bet nobody is complaining out there. december is kind to us. we're going to have a rare colder-than-average day tomorrow, though. we'll talk about that and look ahead to the weekend in just a few minutes. scott, what is coming up in sports? >> sue, last night, robert griffin 3 added to his mystique. was his presence alone enough to push the wizards to victory. a piece of the superrooky is heading to canton and the professional football hall of fame. coming up in the sports edge. brian. >> and if you have a story idea, there is the phone numbery, and mail address. we're back. we're back.  [ male announcer ] this commercial is not about getting fios;

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. john mcafee has come out of hiding, the first time he's seen after being named a person of interest in the murder case. he plans to seek asylum in guatemala because he fears persecution in belize. they want to question him in the november killing of his neighbor, fellow american gregory fall. mcafee claims the government has a vendetta against him. >> they killed one of my dogs. they broke into all of my houses, they stole. i have been continually harassed by the government. and they're attempted to discharge me with every fine. i have documentations and -- to get it and -- . >> mcafee illegally crossed into guatemala with his fiance and two journalists. he's hired a lawyer. lance armstrong will hold on to his bronze medal from the 2000 sidney games for now. the international olympic committee postponed -- and they stripped four of their medals

first athens olympics. they were disqualified after the doping samples came back positive. today, a federal appeals court won't stop a decision to put the large images on all cigarette packages. the appeal asked for a full quarter panel to revisit the case. some of the nation's largest tobacco companies sued to block the mandate, claiming the images and stories of the smokers report true. the government argues the antismoking campaign is factual. like grading your home can make the holidays merry and dangerous. each year, thousands of consumers are injured. millions of dollars in property loss reported due to fires. associateed with holiday- related products. today, the consumer product safety commission showed a live demonstration of holiday decoration-rented fires at the testing facility and shared tips. >> the advice in the cpsc. when purchasing a live tree, check for freshness. a fresh tree is green, the candles are hard to pull from the branches and the needles won't break in your hand or

between your fingers. when you tap the tree on the ground, you should not lose needles on a green tree. >> the cpsc recommends to check in to make sure you don't have counterfeit or damaged holiday light. be careful what you type. how a virginia woman's online review landed her in court. r i . >> one more step and this is total control into our lives. >> pushing into your private life. the law enforcement company across the nation is trying to force cell phone companies to do. maybe this will be the grand finale. a maryland man -- and connected with a local radio station now. a sign on the front lawn struck visitors to listen to the music by setting the car radios. ar r

. >> hi, i'm in hawaii, i would like to say happy holidays to my mom naomi and my father tracie in district heights, maryland. happy holidays. i love you guys.  in celebration of over 75 years of our government employees insurance company,or geico. i propose savings for everyone! and political parties that are actual parties! with cake! and presents! too bad nobody could hear me.

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♪ . a judge has ruled in favor of a contractor who had his name dragged through the mud onielp. a fairfax county woman posted a review on the website saying the contractor did shoty work and charged her for work he didn't do and may have stolen jewelry. the contractor sued and the judge ruled the woman has to tech down the accusations of criminal behavior. consumers beware, a phony text message is making its rounds. and it sends customers to a

rebate -- website and authorities say it's a popular scam called fishing and reminded shoppers to never give away personal information to redeem a prize. word of warning, the personal text messages may not be private. there is a push to allow cell phone carriers to save and store the conversations for two years. fox news correspondent ted daniel has the details on the controversial idea. >> reporter: an estimated $6 billion next are set in the united states every day. how long the actual message is stored depends on the carrier. according to a report, at&t mobile discarded messages. they keep them five days, sprint 12. and that can change, though. and if local and state police have their way. they want congress to pass a law requiring the companies to give for two years. >> consumers are unaware that they're even sought after by

government officials. >> robert siciliano is online base for mcafee and said that privacy is one issue, the cost another. >> companies like at&t and verizon would have to hold our data and in their system up to two years and they would have access as well. >> and this is government regulated the data going to cost them data and they're going pass the cost to the consumer. >> reporter: this is important. they do not need a war rant to access the cell phone record, the carriers hand the information over. >> and that is personal. that is ridiculous. >> they going to do it, regardless. >> it's clear the way we communicate has changeed. it will be up to congress to decide just how much access police will have. there was a shot where the text message said what do you mean?

you have no idea what people mean. >> and then you can't get the inflection either. >> tone is like 80% communication. you have no tone on text messages. >> yeah. and not a terrible day but chillier tomorrow. >> and you right, brian. it was breezy and not bad. most of the day in the upper 50s, and that is still nice. even this cold air tonight and tomorrow is not going to stick around. we'll have a chilly night and a couple of nights that will be heading into the 20s and get ready for that and into the 50s and 60s, chilly and tomorrow below average. i'm thinking mid-40s for most areas and not a lot of wind. perhaps it won't feel too bad for you. the weekend is going to warm up and, in fact, we'll see temperatures rising by 5 degrees even as early as friday and so the cold air is not going to stick around and

spotty showers in the forecast to sunday and that is the only precipitation until next week. and that can be warm enough on monday to see a thunderstorm, believe it or not. meanwhile, the temperatures here for the highs today were mostly recorded in the overnight hours and during the day. our temperatures stayd in the upper 50s to low 60s in a couple of spots and we're dropping off a little bit now and that is not bad out there. 53 in the district and that is warmer than the high for the day should be. 53 in a in the lis and mid-40s out there and into the overnight hours, the colder air into western pennsylvania will be able to filter in later and mostly clear skies, can you see the clouds up to the north and showers didn't amount to much here. this is the frontal boundary that came to chasing the cooler air out of town and that is sinking to the south and colder air across the lakes and for upstate new york and far south as bing hampton and scranton and that is trying to wind

down. we'll focus on the cold overnight and there is some places dropping into the 20s and a look for 28 degrees and 27 anymore gaithersburg and frederick, 34 degrees in the district with the winds much lighter out of the west- northwest at 5 to 10. >> and tomorrow, 45 degrees, a chilly day and a lot of sunshine and a great day for the lighting of the national christmas tree, although take your layers, a cold start in the morning for the kids, sunny by noon and tomorrow night, 4:00 and about 42 degrees. the temperatures are going to be rising again. not as warm as we had the last few days and still back up close to 60 degrees mark and, ven maybe 62 degrees on monday. and your eyes don't deceive you there. that is a thunderstorm we had to throw on. tuesday and wednesday of next week and looking into the low 50s, which is still bargain territory, if you ask me. >> thank you, sue. this is the time of the year when we hear fox 5 ask to

you watch us. we want to you help us fill a trailer for food for the area's hungry and there are more than you think. the capitol area food bank said the number of people looking for help doubled. look at the screen and find us at a giant store location on friday and help us stuff a truck for the hungry. we and the hungry will thank you. the wizards shot the defending nba champs with a good luck charm in the front row. scott scot smith has the sports edge. -- scott smith has the sports edge. edge. . >> they say cats have nine lives and the dj. 1.2million vows, the cat decided to mix up a melody. bob marley's greatest hits. st 

. tons of momentum on as the redskins take aim in the fourth consecutive win against i-95 neighbors, the ravens. the skins haven't beat the ravens in a few years. a few redskins getting healthy in time for sunday. watching practice from the sideline, london fletcher with an ankle injury. the left tackle trent williams, a deep -- and trying to bounce back. nagged the last few weeks. the cornerback hall wearing a boot today and he will suit up sunday against the ravens. one redskin done for the rest of the regular season, backup cornerback cedric griffin. he tested positive for aderol,

a drug boosting concentration for adhd, a banned substance for the nfl. his locker has been cleared out. >> i think he wish he had over again to make the decision. he's a great kid and love how he handles himself and just made a bad decision. >> absolutely disappointed. like i said, nothing i can do about it. i can't sit down or anyone else in the locker room and just like no one else can, so, you know, he will probably have to deal with those consequences and, like i said, we'll keep fighting, trying to go out there and put the best guys on the field and, you know, keep trying to get better. >> and as for robert griffin 3, enterring the hallowed halls of the professional football hall of fame. at least the clothing is. rg3 broke the nfl rookie quarterback rushing record on monday night surpassing cam newton now with 707 total rushing yards. today, a representative from the hall of fame collected his game jersey and cleats to go on

display in canton, ohio. >> i want to be the best quarterback to play the game, not the best running quarterback and not the best african-american quarterback and, you know, that is the approach i took towards it. it's not something i can fight and you never hear me, you know, push it that much. you have to go and show it on the field. you know, it's just to me, i want to be known as the quarterback and if coach grudin wants to say i changeed the game, that is fine by me. >> and last night, rg3, a late arrival for a battle of the nba's worse versus the best. the wizards hosting the heat and on this night, they would do more than hang around. a team high 22 points off of the bench. the wizards never trailed after the first quarter. the final seconds, lebron james who posted a triple double with a chance to tie and not this time. the wizards upset the heat, 105- 101 for the second win of the season. some are giving rg eye 3 credit as a good luck -- rg3 credit as

a good luck charm. is he buying it? >> say thank you or, i don't know, what can you say? y that the ones who played and i didn't play the game. you know, he wouldn't keep, the coach said i can't be going over there and rubbing off. i use it on my magic on those guys and need it for us and that is what it is. it was fun to thereby. >> and we have college hoops on deck on tonight. maryland hosts maryland everyone here and -- shore and tennessee at virginia. and you have the news knowledge. the news is always on www.myfoxdc.com. back here at 10. the news edge. hope you will be, too. tmz on the is coming up next.

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